SHOULD I GIVE UP, JUST LIKE OUR COUNTRY?

What is it with our country?
It's like we're just giving up to those who want nothing more than to kill every last one of us.
The people we trust betray us to the enemy.
Our secrets, that which we once held secure and foolproof, are being spilt without impropriety and concern over who it benefits or damages.
We're giving enemy combatants and terrorists without state sponsorship or US citizenship the same rights as those afforded to us who are citizens.
We're teaching Islam in our schools as if it were something to be emulated (see them try that with Christianity!)
Not so much as a blink.
Should I give up and accept the inevitable, that our country is on the brink of the absolute worst catastrophe in its history, both socially and politically?

REASON #1,000,002 TO AVOID MYSPACE - YOUR INFO COULD BE USED AGAINST YOU

OK, I'm going to start by assuming that 80% of MySpace users are lacking something mentally. That would make it a whole heck of a lot easier to accept that this guy was just a normal MySpace user who had mustered enough foolheadedness to publish a good deal of personal information about himself on his page. And to trump even that, he decided to risk a personal encounter with a 'babe' he didn't know anything more about than 'just lookin' for something fun'. Brilliant. Oh, and he forgot his wallet (which most likely contained his means of protection, so to speak), which is actually a good thing, considering he ended up meeting the OTHER half of MySpace, the shady criminal element/bored teen combination.

“I went to [the apartment] and knocked on the door, and there was no answer. So I called her and said, ‘I'm here’ and there was no answer."

That is when two girls who were 14 and 15-years-old, approached him saying they knew Natalia, the girl he thought he'd be meeting. They also said they knew where he worked at what car he drove.

"This was not the girl that the picture was of on MySpace," the victim said.

Now sensing something was wrong, he was ready to take off, but was stopped by a shocking discovery.

"[One of the girls] took [a] gun out and put it to my head and told me to empty my pockets."

The girls didn't get much because the victim had forgotten his wallet. They let him go, unharmed, and he called police.

Unharmed and unarmed. What a pathetic case. So for those of you casually inclined to post your salary on myspace, or pictures of your car, or your new bling, be forewarned. Those teenie boppers may not know how to spell anything above three letters, but they sure can spot someone even stupider than they are.

And they all, my friends, hang out on MySpace.

REASON #1,000,001 TO AVOID MYSPACE - IT'S COTTON-PICKIN' TIME!!

Finally, someone takes action against MySpace for the thing that most defines - and implicates - them... virtual freeform anarchy. And the contents of the suit squarely hit the mark. I agree with every one of the allegations:

The lawsuit claims that the Web site does not require users to verify their age and calls the security measures aimed at preventing strangers from contacting users younger than 16 "utterly ineffective."

"MySpace is more concerned about making money than protecting children online," said Adam Loewy, who is representing the girl and her mother in the lawsuit against MySpace, parent company News Corp. and Pete Solis, the 19-year-old accused of sexually assaulting the girl.

Absolutely. If they want any kind of security and assurance, they need to follow some of the more common child restraints like those at Yahoo! which I believe use a parent's credit card as verification of a minor's age (for an email/groups account).

Hemanshu Nigam, the chief security officer for MySpace.com, said in a written statement: "We take aggressive measures to protect our members. We encourage everyone on the Internet to engage in smart web practices and have open family dialogue about how to apply offline lessons in the online world."

Hogwash! Nigam knows that there are literally hundreds of users under the minimum supposed 'required' age for Myspace of 14, using fake identities and logging in, vulnerable to guys like Solis who also faked his identity and age to gain the trust of a minor child.

Attorneys general from five states, including Texas, have asked MySpace.com to provide more security, the lawsuit said. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sent a letter to the MySpace.com chief executive officer May 22, asking him to require users to verify their age and identity with a credit card or verified e-mail account.

And still, nothing. Maybe they'll listen to a lawsuit, or two, or many?!?!

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A DAD'S DESECRATION

For all I can postulate and reason, I will probably never figure out why Michael Berg is so far removed from reality or common sense. One might think he would harbor anger at the man who sawed his son's head off in front of thousands, perhaps millions of internet viewers. But no, it seems he's far more dismayed at the death of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi than the death (at Zarqawi's hands) of his own flesh and blood, his son.
I will try to give Mr. Berg the benefit of the doubt, that he's suffered great emotional trauma and needs serious psychological help, even though history indicates the tiger hadn't changed its stripes - Mike Berg was like this even before his son's death. But it's hard to imagine such polar opposites to normal human emotion and a conscience of good and evil. It's as if Nick somehow means nothing, in human, emotional terms, to his father.
Berg the father gave a series of interviews - albeit short ones - on national cable TV networks the other night. They were short because frankly, he's decided to take the psychotic plunge in his antipathy and hatred for George Bush and apathy toward the murder of his son.
Some examples:

You can't really believe that that's a democracy there when the people who are running the elections are holding guns. That's not democracy.

See, I think he has this holding guns thing confused with the actual tyranny of the Hussein regime before the present Iraqi government. Mike, get a grip - the election officers are holding guns for their own protection and for the protection of the people who are voting. You know, from people like Zarqawi who would do anything to thwart anything resembling a free election?

“First of all, I’m not even certain that al-Zarqawi even killed my son.”

So who did? Was it the person he hates the most, President Bush, dressed up in that mask using Zarqawi's voice, wielding Zarqawi's knife? In Berg's own warped mind, I suppose.

“I think the news of the loss of any human being is a tragedy. I think al-Zarqawi’s death is a double tragedy."

So Zarqawi's death is twice as tragic as that of the man he murdered? What a sick puppy.... intentional or not, that is a sick thought.

"If I could have prevented the death of Zarqawi, I would..."



Berg even went so far as to suggest Zarqawi could have been made a "decent human being" through "restorative justice" like working in a hospital treating war victims.
Actually, that probably wouldn't have been a bad idea. So I wonder what kept Mike Berg from going to Zarqawi with his idea right after Nick's death? After all, in Mike's heart, Zarqawi really wasn't such a bad person, right?

Alas, the anomaly that is Michael Berg can be made irrelevant, thankfully, with the contrasting opinion of another beheading victim's family member. Paul Johnson III, son of Paul Johnson Jr, who was killed by al Qaeda in 2004:
"The anniversary of my dad's death is right around the corner...Hearing this pretty much shocked me, but it was a nice shock. I'm glad he's dead. I hope he rots in hell, to tell the truth."
Cyndi Armstrong, wife of Zarqawi victim Eugene Armstrong's cousin:
"An evil man is dead, and what more can you say?"


Somehow after this, Michael Berg seems so small and alone, obsessed with an overwhelming hatred of George Bush. And for the rest of us, life goes on, a victory won.